Life by Design: Life on a Floating Hotel

In this regular blog series I delve into the mind-set of people who crafted their lives in a particular way. Find out how to create the life you want from those who are already doing it.

In this blog I speak to Ali Ashton, owner of www.hotel-narrowboats.co.uk. Ali runs a floating hotel on two narrow boats called Duke and Duchess with her partner Andy and her two adult children. Having witnessed a different pace of life on the canals I was interested to know how she made the transition from a 9-5 job in a college to running a hotel on a pair of boats. What does it take to live and work on England's inland waterways?

Tell us about life on the narrow boats

I live on and run a floating hotel on two narrow boats called Duke and Duchess. Six months of my life is spent travelling the inland waterways of England (and a bit of Wales) running working boats that are now carry paying guests, rather than coal or salt or pottery. The boats are a 70ft narrow boat pair; while Duke has a motor, Duchess is an unpowered “butty boat” which is towed behind or breasted up beside Duke. The other six months is spent wherever I want to spend it; this last winter was in Salthouse Dock in the centre of Liverpool which was brilliant. Our cruises follow linear routes around the country as far south as Oxford, west to Llangollen and each season usually starts and ends in the North.

Along the way the guests experience so many different aspects of life in the UK; we might be floating by big houses with gardens sweeping down to the canals or river or be in the middle of a rural idyll for days. Most guests are surprised how rural this country is. Even when we are near towns and cities often the canal skirts around the outside or passes through but hidden by trees or parks. Although we do spend time in really nice city and town centre locations; one of our favourites last summer was the August Bank Holiday in Stratford upon Avon right there on the River Avon and it was fantastic.

It's a very different lifestyle than most people would recognise. It’s a very physical job; we’re on our feet nearly all the time either cooking in the galley or running around the towpath opening locks or climbing on the top of the boats while they’re moving. Even on rest days we have food shopping and laundry to do as well as finding where to take on water and get a pump-out (think colonic irrigation for boats) and get rid of our waste. There’s a lot to think about and lots of contact with guests who are coming to join us, or who have been and gone and stayed in touch and enquiries from people who want to come in the following season. Touch wood but neither me or the crew have even had so much as a cold in the last three years and we seem to get fitter and stronger as the season rolls on. It’s a life that’s busy with a purpose (cooking, moving the boats, caring for the guests) but it’s also very relaxed and time moves to a different rhythm, more in touch with the past. The summer evenings are really special, especially when we’re in the middle of nowhere, we get to sleep in places where there is literally no-one around and it’s magical. My son often takes his hammock and goes and sleeps out if there are trees nearby.

We don’t have TV on board in the summer, and internet connections are notoriously poor on the waterways for some reason so this adds to the feeling of being in another, simpler time. Obviously there are no cars, everyone is either walking, cycling or boating and I think it makes a huge difference to how we view life. It may sound dreadful to some people, but we absolutely love it. My two children have crewed for me for the last 2 seasons and my son is returning for his third so it must be a little bit OK. My daughter has moved to London this year and enjoys her work but is missing her life on the boats a lot.

What is it like for your guests?

We have a range of guests; half come from the UK and the other half from the rest of the world but mostly New Zealand, Australia, US, Canada and South Africa with some Europeans who are usually from Holland, Denmark or Germany. We have a lot of solo travellers, as this is an ideal holiday for them on many levels; either they would struggle to hire and drive a boat on their own (with all the locks to do single-handed) but also because we all eat together so there’s plenty of company and we don’t charge any single supplements. We also have plenty of couples or friends as well as some full boat charters, when a group of friends or family take over both boats.

Some guests come along to relax and sit and watch all the fun, while others really want to join in and work alongside us. Some guests have different abilities or interests to their partners and so choose to come without them. Last summer we had a couple on board who rarely holidayed together as he liked to sit and sketch all day, while his wife preferred to walk a lot. They managed to combine both with us while travelling in the same direction so they could still discuss it all at dinner.

We have lots of guests who come back 2 or 3 times in the same season because they enjoy it so much, we get to know them really well and make sure all their favourite drinks and food are available. Some guests just like to do their own thing and we may only see them at meal times, whatever reason they are with us for is fine and that’s the whole point of this business, they can please themselves. We were once praised by a guest for not having any “forced jollity”. I kind of know what she meant but I hope that she still found us good fun though. The weeks can be very different depending who is on board. I often get asked if the guests get on with each other and I can hand on heart say that yes they do. Some weeks are just amazing though and the guests stand out as really special, we seem to be getting more of those weeks now that the same people are returning each year. I really look forward to seeing some of them back, and they've become friends.

Duke and Duchess

What do you like about life on the boats?

I like everything about it, even when I'm shattered because it’s a much better kind of tired than when I was spending so much time at a desk. It’s a small business but in a micro format I have to be everything from the managing director to personnel to logistics, to marketing to cook, cleaner, training, health and safety and IT department amongst other things and so I've had to learn an awful lot. Andy takes care of the accounts and the engineering issues that arise thank goodness. I'm outdoors a lot of the time and the work is so practical that it takes care of my fitness as well. I've had both my adult children with me for the last two summers, which I never expected and we worked alongside each other really well (which I never expected either). In lots of respects I couldn't have done it without them. They have worked tirelessly to help me make this a success. Only my son is returning for the next season but I’m in the middle of recruiting new crew and have been staggered by the response I’ve had.

I love how in touch with nature we are all the time when we are moving along, how the rhythm of our lives slows right down and modern life feels like a million miles away at times. There is really nothing like spending months waking up to just the sound of ducks and swans pecking at the side of the boat for some food (they're very clever and this happens all the time) birdsong and sheep. It's just magical in the summer. In the winter we usually find a city centre so that I'm near good rail connections and I can visit all my family and friends or vice versa, I like cycling in cities and the boats are safe. I wouldn't be able to afford to live in any of the city centre locations that I can go and moor up in so this is a great way to spend the winter.

These things are really important to me, more than earning a lot of money and sitting in an office or commuting and wishing I was out there. Sometimes the canals travel on aqueducts and these are often placed over busy roads. Around 5pm most nights my daughter and I would be sat on the top of the boats with a cuppa having our break and looking down on the queues of cars below; at those times it would hit me quite hard how happy I was that I don’t have that in my life any more.

It sounds idyllic...

It has it's downsides of course; we get the occasional awkward guest but it's incredibly rare and I've learned to take this in my stride. We have some conflicts between ourselves of course; we work long hours in very close quarters and sometimes we disagree about things; I've found it challenging at times to balance the role of being mother and boss to the crew but we always sort it out. If the crew are unhappy it shows, you can't hide it from the guests so we work it out. We have a “special breakfast” every week on the morning the guests leave and this is everyone’s chance to offload anything that’s bugging them. We've had a few tears and a few arguments but we've always resolved any issues this way.

Sometimes in the winter I go and stay with friends in their lovely houses and think "this is really nice. I should be living like this" but then I get back to the boats and it doesn't matter any more that I don’t have lots of stuff.

I've just finished bottling all the sloe and damson gin that we made during the summer from fruit picked by some of the guests, ready to give them as a gift when they come back this summer. This is making me much happier than you can imagine… the guests will be happy too especially when they’re completely pissed (laughs)….. I think it might be a bit strong, I'm a novice at this.

What inspired you to do this?

A lot of people ask me this and I do not know. I can honestly say I never had a dream to own a hotel boat. I didn't even have a dream to own a boat. When I met Andy, he had a narrow boat and we went on holiday on it a few times; before then I'd never been on a narrow boat and my only connection with canals was walking along the tow path in Marple. I never looked at them thinking "I want one of those", I actually wanted a campervan!

What I did want was to have my own business of some kind but I had no idea what. I’d worked at Marple College for 20 years and always loved it until recently. One day Andy sent me a link about a pair of hotel narrow boats as a joke saying "there's a business you could do" and we went to view them just out of curiosity, I'd never even heard of a hotel boat. We didn't buy those first boats we viewed but it had piqued my interest. I realised I could combine my love of entertaining, with my love of practical work and being outdoors and thought it could be quite fun. We noticed a pair of boats, Duke and Duchess, were up for sale. We viewed them and I loved them. I just thought "yeah let's go for it!" and we did.

Was the change about leaving your old life or moving toward something new?

Someone I knew once told me to think about whether a life change of any kind was “an opportunity or an escape” For me this business was an opportunity to do something completely different and right out of my comfort zone. I was actually terrified of running my own business and had no idea what to do really, it was a hell of a steep learning curve. But I had turned 50 and I thought if I didn't do something different now, when exactly would I? So I took the plunge and here I am three years later and loving it. I won’t be doing this forever but I now know that I can run a business and although it doesn't make huge amounts of money, I've turned in a small profit every year and improved the boats as well. 

I've always had a dream to run a bed and breakfast, a fantasy thing, but now because of this I know I could do it. It's inspired me that I can do something else if I want to.

lock gate

Everyone wants to talk about the benefits, what did you need to let go of?

I'm very close to my mother and she’s 82 now, the hardest thing of all is not being able to pop round every day. I worry about her and miss her even though I ring her every day.

Not seeing my friends all the time was hard but most of them have come and visited me somewhere and they have been brilliant, really kind and helpful to me especially in the first season when it was so very tough. They continue to help in many ways, not least of which is always giving me a bed when I go home to visit.

My house is rented out so I haven’t exactly let go of it, but obviously I can’t use it when I go back home to see my family and friends (which is why I appreciate my friends’ help so much in putting me up).

I had to let go of material things, I couldn't afford lots of storage so I sold or gave away most of my belongings apart from a few items of sentimental value. Of course I have enough things on the boats to manage perfectly well but you’ll definitely see me in the same few clothes over and over. Everything I buy has to earn its keep and be useful in some way.

I don’t have a car any more, it’s pretty useless when we’re cruising and I use my bike or trains to get around out of season.

Oh and meat and dairy! Both my two children and I became vegans towards the end of the first season and there’s no going back now.

Were you scared launching the business?

Yes I was terrified. There were times I thought "why am I doing this?" but I kept ploughing on anyway. I haven’t regretted it but if I’d known then what I would have to go through to get here I probably wouldn't have started.

When we went to pick up the boats, they were in such a mess and we hadn't realised how much work they needed. I look back and wonder how we managed, working full time and spending every weekend, and holiday travelling to the boats and working so hard to get them right. The only thing the previous owner gave us before he moved abroad was a memory stick with a database of guests on it. We thought we had a healthy amount of bookings but this turned out not to be the case and we had absolutely no-one booked on that first season.

It was so bad that we foolishly didn't factor in any days off as we were convinced we would be floating around all summer on our own. But once we worked out how to build a website and got it out there, the phone started ringing and by the time we set off we had half our holidays sold and we ended the season sold out…. and rung out. We’d worked 20 weeks without a day off

The first two years were so challenging; I just worked and worked. I never knew I had it in me to be honest. Then in Spring 2015 I took severance from my job at the college and just went for it. I tied up loose ends, rented my house out and moved onto the boats. I remember it clearly, it was a very rainy Sunday evening; even though we’d owned the boats for 2 years by then, I had never spent any time alone on them, there were always other people here but my first night as a live-a-board felt very lonely and strange. I had plenty of “what-the-hell-have-I-done” moments during that night. But the next morning the sun was shining, it was a Monday morning and instead of commuting, I was walking along a very pretty Cheshire tow-path and having a cuppa and chatting with the other boaters. I've not looked back since really. I'm not saying things don’t go wrong at times, a lot of times actually but I've developed this sense of not worrying any more, which is quite a life change for me and problems always get resolved one way or another.

What did other people say?

Pretty much all of my friends and family were encouraging but didn't really understand what a hotel boat business was all about, which meant no-one had a horror story to tell anyway. I’d say there was  a fifty-fifty split between those saying "go for it" and those who thought I was “very brave” (I wasn't) but quickly added that they couldn't possibly give up their life to do it. I don’t remember anyone being particularly negative. Everyone who has been to visit us totally gets it now though and they are generous in their encouragement.

Some of my closest friends gave us a great deal of practical help in many different ways for which I will be forever grateful.  For example they re-covered seats,  made new curtains for sixteen windows,  and there were some who dropped everything to come and help when we had a disaster with the rudder on our first day as owners.  
Some friends helped tile the galley and some made up beds and cleaned alongside me.  I have friends who are still storing some of my things (like my bikes and my record collection) and friends who invited us to eat round at theirs when we'd had long days fixing up the boats and were too tired to cook.  Even now every time I go home to visit my mother one friend or another lends me a spare bed and I am not sure I will ever be able to pay them back for all their help but I love them all dearly and one by one I'm getting them on the boats for a little holiday.
 

When did you know it was a success?

Probably in the first season, once the guests started to come and enjoyed it so much and I took bookings for the following year. But it depends on the criteria for success I suppose. If you mean enormous profits then no but we don’t do it for that. In monetary terms, we made a small profit in our first year, which was unexpected and delightful but then we did put an awful lot of hours in.

On a personal level, the success of our family to work so closely was a delight to me. I will be forever grateful to my children as I don’t think we could have got crew that would have stayed by our side through that first season. They weren't just encouraging, they were there alongside me working incredibly hard and they had no experience of this any more than I did but we were a great team. I hadn't expected that and it was a truly amazing thing. Our second season (with days off factored in) was much more fun and we ended that one all feeling so healthy and happy that even if we’d not made a penny we would have felt successful.

We’re really looking forward to starting off the third season and I've recently had to advertise for a replacement crew member for my daughter, if the overwhelming response I've had to the advert from such amazing young people is a measure of success then we've made it (laughs). The short-listed candidates are travelling from Dublin, Scotland and London to meet with me and look over the boats. They all think it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to do a job like this and in lots of ways they’re right.  

Hauling the butty boat, Duchess, into a lock

What have you learnt?

I've learnt a lot about myself and I'm sure Andy and the kids would say the same. I've learnt that I'm pretty resilient, that I can work longer and harder than I ever imagined and enjoy it. That I am fitter than I realised and that it’s possible to increase my stamina as I age. I've always been fairly fit but I thought it tailed off as you get older but I realised that it doesn't if you don’t let it.

I've learnt I don’t have to live and work in a normal life and job that there are lots of alternative lifestyles and this is just one of them. It's opened my eyes to that. I've had incredible people as guests who I would probably never have got chance to meet and hear their stories.

I've also realised that all you have to do is ask and people will help. I always struggled to ask for help but with this job I've had to and it has brought me much closer to people. I've had a bit of an epiphany over it all really. I struggled initially as my pride didn't want me to appear like I didn't know what I was doing but the other hotel boat operators were really helpful and encouraging and were genuinely pleased we've brought these boats. We became part of a small family of people who own and run hotel boats and we all get together a couple of times a year. If we pass them on the canals in the summer, we moor up and all the crews and guests get together and it’s really exciting … (laughs) listen to me!

I used to feel pressure about not knowing everything but I've grown in confidence and realised I don’t need to know everything. I know my stuff and do my research before each place we go to but now if a guest asks a question that I can't answer I just say that I don’t know and the sky doesn't fall in (laughs).

What qualities does someone need to do what you've done?

A hard question, I'm not sure really. I think I've had to work at developing some qualities that I may not have had in spades such as patience and tolerance. They’d certainly need to be physically active and enjoy being with people.

What advice would you give?

It's a right old cliché I suppose but there's never a right time to do something, there really isn't and time marches on. So just don’t think about things too much or you will always find a way to talk yourself out of whatever it is you want to do. Be sensible to an extent but ultimately take that leap of faith and just do it, don’t let fear hold you back, because it will if you let it.

Is there anything that would make you go back to employment or working in the college?

No (laughs). That's the short answer.

It all sounds great. What would you say to people who say you can't have your cake and eat it.

I’d probably agree….. there are always sacrifices to be made and there and there are still plenty of scary moments to keep me on my toes and a lot of the aspects that I think are truly idyllic about our lifestyle would probably not appeal to some people but I feel like I have got my little (dairy free) cake actually (laughs).

Thanks Ali. Thank you for taking to time to share your experiences, it's been been inspirational stuff.

If, having read this, you'd like to know more about Duke and Duchess or book a holiday on the boats you can find our more information at www.hotel-narrowboats.co.uk

In my next blog I'll be speaking to Katy who created her life around her perfect work-life balance. In the mean time let us know what you think of Ali's experiences. What about you? Have you made a similar transition? How did it go? Are you planning to do something similar? What challenges are you facing?

Do you know someone who is living life by design? Send me their details or ask them to get in touch if you think they should appear in a future blog.